Ok, picked it up after lunch today and put a good 2+ hours into it so far. Besides being 2 discs, its quite a departure from the Onimusha we know.
First off: Good news for importers, Capcom has REALL full language options in this game. The system language (this includes subs, menus, any text, etc) can be set to English or Japanese, and the voices can be set to English or Japanese as well. The translation is definitely from the upcoming US release and if its any indication (I haven't played a US Capcom game in ages) their putting a solid effort in it.
The game itself is pretty damn good so far, although not quite what I expected. The game is a good bridge between a solid 3D action title complete with stages, bosses, etc and a pseudo-action RPG. Although much of my impression about it being a "bridge" might be due to the presentation because in pure technical sense there's no reason why it wouldn't be considered an action RPG completely.
The game is broken up into "stages", while between stages you're in your hideout. While in your hideout you can talk to other party members, combine items, upgrade your weapons and armor, buy items, revisit any previous stage, etc. The game now features a buttload and more ways to upgrade yourself. Like in the previous Onimusha games, the red souls you absorb can be used to upgrade your weapons and armor at any magic mirrior, but now whenever you slay a foe you also gain exp, gaining exp will level up your character increasing your HP and MP.
Leveling up will also net you Character Points, which can then be put into a shitload of stats. Unlike a standard RPG though, these stats are all your available standard "moves", like "Slash", "Thrust", "Evade", "Absorb", etc. By putting points into each of these standard moves they become stronger and at various points might give you more attack moves from that basic subset. Add to the fact that there are now 5 playable characters and over different 20 weapons for each (about 136 total based on the blank slots in the menu listing) Shin Onimusha is quite a character building powerhouse for an action title.
The game stages are also designed in such a way that revisiting stages when you have new party members that can do more stuff will net you more bonus items as they can reach places you wouldn't be able to before. When it comes to items, the game is no push over either, with a buttload of "items" which have no use in the normal sense but simply exist for you to combine into usable items. Item alchemy has long been a staple of RPGs but I guess they're starting to spill over to action games too! (Unless you don't consider Shin Onimusha to be an action game at all....)
So far the graphics and music have been amazing and definitely live up to the "Onimusha" namesake. Besides the awesome 6min CG FMV opening, pretty much all the cutscenes so far have been realtime but still look solid. Load times are really minimal and the framerate is great (don't think it's 60fps, but it pretty much never dips). The fully togglable 3D camera is definitely a welcome addition (although there are a few areas where the camera still locks to an angle, but they're far and few inbetween) and makes the action much more fun and exciting.
The ally system is pretty solid, with the AI being capable enough to stand on its own with minimal aid, although usually you'll want to be fighting right alongside your ally to get the most fun out of it. After all the entire point of the system is to be able to use the ally to do more combos and ally attacks, adding to the action-based fun. The ally commands are pretty useful too, since I used it to take down the second boss much easier. The stupid spider would jump back and forth between two areas, so I would just leave my ally on one side with the "Wait and Recover" command while I attacked the boss over at the other area. If the boss were to jump over to the other area I would just switch the ally command to "All out attack" while I took out the goons that would spawn in my area once the boss jumps over. Overall its not a fustrating experience and actually adds to my enjoyment of the game.
Did I mention the music rocks? Yeah the music rocks.
So far the game is a A-, as its not as open-ended RPG-style as I thought it would be, and there isn't a town to talk to people like in Onimusha 2. But considering the game is supposed to be at LEAST 16 hours long, and spans 2 DVDs... we'll see. I expect good things from Shin Onimusha and so far its not disappointing yet.